


It's Super Effective!

by heavvymetalqueen



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Gen, M/M, Pokemon - Freeform, Psychic Bond, Telepathy, awkward bonding through a link cable, video games - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 17:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10140527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heavvymetalqueen/pseuds/heavvymetalqueen
Summary: Hal never thought he’d be bored at his high-secrecy job designing giant robots, and yet here he was, playing Pokemon on the job.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for Rarepair Week, day one - prompt is "Uncomfortable situations"

Hal switched on his GBA with a yawn.

He never thought he’d be bored at his high-secrecy job designing giant robots, and yet here he was, playing Pokemon on the job.

To be fair, they were sitting ducks until the mechanical team was done with the stress tests on Rex’s new leg prototype. Most of his team hadn’t even bothered to show up but he was lead designer, so he felt obligated to.

Besides, he had forgotten his GBA in his desk drawer the night before.

He was just checking the Pokemon he’d caught the night before when his vision went blurry, and his brain broke into static. He squeezed his eyes tight, cold sweat breaking on his skin, and waited for the sudden wave of nausea to pass.

Then it was gone, just as it started.

“What the hell was that,” he grumbled. Some kind of new symptom of caffeine migraine? He did have only one coffee this morning, so maybe...

“Dr. Emmerich, report to B1 subcommander office, I repeat, Dr. Emmerich....”

“Fuck,” he whispered, suddenly happy he hadn’t had more coffee because he felt very much like pissing himself.

The subcommander of the base was Psycho Mantis. And whatever he wanted from him, it couldn’t be good.

He tucked the GBA back into the drawer and got up, his legs shaking. His stomach twisted painfully the whole elevator ride up to the upper level. He’d heard the stories. Mantis got into your mind, saw your deepest, most disgusting secrets, could control your body, make you shit yourself and kill you with a flick of his little finger.

He didn’t believe in telepathy before coming to Shadow Moses. He believed in many things now.

He knocked softly and the door gave way under his knuckles, creaking open without anybody pulling it.

He stepped inside. It was the first time he was called in Mantis’ office, and it was bizarrely ornate and warm compared what he was used to. Plush carpet, wood paneling, soft lights, a huge mahogany desk Mantis had his booted feet propped up on. “Y-you called for me, sir?”

“I did,” said Mantis, his voice a sickening rattle through his gas mask.

“What do you need me for?”

Mantis slowly slid his feet off the desk with a creak of leather. He propped impossibly sharp elbows onto the desktop, leaning forward.

Even though he was wearing a mask, for some reason Hal was sure he was smiling.

“I have seen you play video games on the job.”

“Ah. I-I’m sorry, I won’t...”

“You were playing Pokemon Ruby, right?”

“I...yes, sir.”

“Do you have a Zangoose?”

Hal blinked. Pushed his glasses up his nose, touched his lenses with sweaty fingers. “I....I do, sir. Caught him yesterday.”

“Trade it with me,” said Mantis, and my god, he sounded....excited?

“I’m sorry?”

Mantis opened a desk drawer and pulled out a GBA of his own. “You see, I only have Pokemon Sapphire. I want...a Zangoose. Trade me one.”

Hal swallowed. “Of...of course, sir. I’ll go get my game boy, do you...do you have a cable?”

Mantis nodded.

“I’ll be right back.”

Hal had no idea how he ended in this situation, but as he shoved his GBA in his pocket, he decided it was decidedly better than being made shit himself.

***

“Is it male?” hissed Mantis, hovering uncomfortably close.

“Yes.”

“Can you rename it.”

Hal almost asked what was wrong with Mugen, but bit his tongue. “Of course.” He used Fly to get to Slateport City and headed for the name rater. “What name do you want sir?”

“Eli,” chuckled Mantis, and the sound was awfully similar to the crunch of moth wings. “Call it Eli.”

“E-L-I, is that right?”

“Yes! Yes, that is perfect.” Mantis quickly tapped buttons on his own GBA. “Would you like....a Seviper?”

Hal laughed. “Of course, you’d have a snake.”

Mantis made an harrumphing noise through his mask, and handed Hal one end of the cable. “What else do you want.”

“Do you have a Sableye?”

“Yess,” hissed Mantis. “But she’s in my team. Kyogre?”

Hal blinked “That’s...a legendary. There’s only one...”

“I don’t need it.”

“W-well, if you’re sure...of course, I’ll take it.”

He hooked the cable and went into the Pokecenter.

“What do you want me to call it?” asked Mantis, the mouthpiece of his mask almost touching the screen.

“Oh...I...I hadn’t thought about that.” He was not expecting Mantis to care, to be honest.

“I called it Rex.”

“Oh. Like...my Rex?”

Mantis nodded.

“That’s...nice. I’ll take it as Rex then. It’s appropriate.”

It was bizarre, sitting in Psycho Mantis’ luxurious office, with him sitting on the desk, and...trade Pokemon. And he was getting a _legendary_ for a Zangoose, to boot.

“Ah, there he is,” said Mantis, “thank you, Emmerich.”

“D-do you want to battle?” stammered Hal. He had no idea why, but he didn’t quite want to go back to his cold grey lab just yet.

Mantis’ head shot up, looking at him through the orange lenses of his mask, and, it felt like, all the way through his skull. “Sure,” he said finally.

It was a short battle. Mantis’ extremely overpowered Blaziken wrecked Hal’s Delcatty, Magneton and Vileplume, and his ghost Pokemon did short work of the rest of his team.

“You are weak,” hissed Mantis.

Hal blushed. “I don’t usually play with others.”

“You are still weak. I should trade you an actual team.”

Hal found himself smiling. “Why not?”

***

Hal was back in Mantis’ office the next day. They linked Game Boys and traded several pokemon, battled several times. Hal even won once. Mantis gave him very good advice for team composition.

“I didn’t expect you to be into this sort of thing,” blurted Hal suddenly as Mantis was explaining the intricacies of Ghost type.

“I like video games,” said Mantis, looking down. “They are fun. I can’t read the minds of characters.”

“Oh, so you still get surprised when something happens?”

“Something like that.”

Hal glanced at their linked Game Boys. “What other games do you have, sir? We could play other things.”

It started with Nightmare in Dreamland, which they played to completion. Then Doom, and Hal was terrible at it, and Mantis laughed. Legend of Zelda had them busy for weeks, here and there in between the development of Rex’ cockpit and Mantis’ missions away from Shadow Moses.

Eventually Hal started hearing Mantis’ voice in his head more than with his ears. It was kind of pleasant, the psychic link between felt like a ribbon being pulled around his brain whenever Mantis patched into his mind. It was different from nanocommunications, it felt organic and almost...intimate. It was never painful, and when they played together it let him feel Mantis enjoyment. It almost purred like a cat when he was having fun.

They were racing in F-Zero one long night while Hal’s code compiled when the door of Mantis’ office slammed open and suddenly, Liquid Snake was there, bigger than life.

Hal froze. His spaceship crashed. Liquid looked at him as if he had no idea who he was, and he probably didn’t.

He didn’t say a word. Hal knew he was communicating with Mantis telepathically. He hoped he wasn’t telling him to kill him.

Liquid was gone as fast as he’d come in, and Mantis laughed on their psychic link.

“I hope he doesn’t want me dead now.”

 _No_ , chuckled Mantis. _He is bad at expressing it, but he’s happy I have a friend._

Hal straightened. “I’m...your friend?”

The gas mask twitched, which meant he was laughing out loud. _I guess so. Does this bother you?_

“No. I’m just...nobody ever called me their friend.”

_People are stupid._

“All of them?”

_No. You are pretty alright._

Hal wondered what his own happiness felt like on their link.

***

As it turned out, Mantis was susceptible to other media other than video games. Anime, for example. Hal was proud for picking something that would get him hooked, but now topping Paranoia Agent was hard. Thankfully Mantis was easily swayed by Hellsing’s visuals. He also yelled at the laptop screen a lot, frustrated he couldn’t control the characters as they did stupid things.

Hal found it really cute.

_Stop that._

“Stop what?”

_Looking at me like that._

Hal lowered his eyes, cheeks burning. “Sorry.”

Mantis was quiet for a while, their link twisting nervously in Hal’s mind. Then, _do you want to_ see.

“S-see?”

_What I look like._

Hal swallowed. “It doesn’t really matter.”

_Hm. I guess not._

Mantis’ skinny shoulder bumped Hal’s and something warm wriggled in his mind.

Cute.

***

Hal was feeding the dogs, tossing scraps of meat at the puppies, when a shiver went down his spine.

“Hi,” he said, without turning.

_Hi. Saw you were here._

Hal glanced up at Mantis, his boots hovering an inch off the snow. And still wearing his usual leather ensemble. “Aren’t you cold?”

_Not really. I’m Russian, you know._

Hal crouched to rub one of the dogs between the ears. “Hey, Mantis?”

_Yes?_

“What do the dogs think about?”

_Food. Playing. Wolf. You, sometimes._

“Do they like me?”

_Yes._

“Aww.” He took the dog’s muzzle in his hands. “I like you guys too!”

 _Dogs are nice_ , pondered Mantis. _They don’t care about human things. They don’t have disgusting needs._

“Am I disgusting, too?”

_Yes._

“Oh. Sorry.”

_You’re less disgusting than most._

Hal grinned. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

Mantis did not answer, but took the scrap of meat Hal was offering him and threw it at the dogs.

***

The production of Rex was getting closer and closer to completion. Hal was nervous. It felt like once it was over, things would change. He would be sent away, perhaps, like many of his team had in the past weeks.

There was a lot he would not miss of Shadow Moses. The cold. His lab that always smelled like burning. Ocelot, who scared the hell out of him. The vague, persistent feeling he was the witless minion of a video game supervillain.

But he _would_ miss what he had right now as he absently checked his code, Mantis lying on the couch with his head in his lap, the sound of an Advance Wars campaign blaring from their linked GBAs.

_Oh. I won._

“About time, I thought we’d never get through that damn encounter.”

_I’ve been in the military, I should be better at this._

“To be fair, there isn’t an a super power to make everybody’s head explode with your mind.”

_There should be._

Hal’s hand brushed the straps of his mask. “Sorry, you’re too unique even for video games.”

Mantis leaned back onto his lap, looking at him through the thick lenses. He had the longest lashes Hal had ever seen, and he thought that every time he saw his eyes. His fingers brushed Hal’s jaw, just as softly as the small twitch at the base of his brain. Hal leaned down, and pressed his lips to the right lens.

_Gross. You left a mark!_

Hal laughed. Mantis did not wipe his lens. They beat three campaigns. Hal’s code compiled, just in time for the DARPA Chief’s visit planned for the next day. It was a good day, so rare on this godforsaken frozen rock.

If only it could have lasted forever.

 


End file.
